New Report Highlights Human Rights Impact of Immigration Laws
Leitner Center Releases Removing Refugees: U.S. Deportation Policy and
the Cambodian-American Community
Washington, DC – The Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic
of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law
School, the Returnee Integration Support Center (RISC) and Deported
Diaspora announce the release of a new report, Removing Refugees: U.S.
Deportation Policy and the Cambodian-American Community. The report
highlights the human rights impact of our current immigration policies
through the lens of the Cambodian-American community and is based upon
interviews conducted in Cambodia with individuals who have been
deported. The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), a
Washington, DC based advocacy organization, has long called for the
restoration of fairness to immigration policies and values the
important contribution of this report to the comprehensive immigration
reform discussion. The report can be accessed at
http://tinyurl.com/Removing-Refugees
Two 1996 Immigration laws, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) expanded the categories for mandatory
deportation and eliminated judicial discretion from the removal
process for all “aggravated felons.” The Cambodian American
community, largely refugees who arrived in the U.S. in the early
1980s, has been hit especially hard by these laws following the
signing of an expansive repatriation agreement between the countries
in 2002.
Chi Mgbako, director of the Walter Leitner International Human Rights
Clinic, states “The laws are currently inhumane, unjust, and in many
instances at odds with international human rights norms. Immigration
reform provides an opportunity to address these overly punitive
measures.”
“These important voices reveal grave acts of human rights violations
in our country’s broken immigration policies” states Dimple Rana,
Co-Founder and Director of Deported Diaspora. “Due process is a core
American value. This report demonstrates how essential it is to
restore due process to the people and families who seek asylum,
freedom and citizenship in the United States.”
Doua Thor, executive director of SEARAC, states, ”As a country that
values justice and the human rights of individuals, we cannot put off
tackling some of the country’s most pressing issues such as
comprehensive immigration reform – and making sure that reform
includes the restoration of judicial discretion.”
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The Leitner Clinic aims to train a new generation of human rights
lawyers and to inspire results-oriented, practical human rights work
throughout the world. We work in partnership with non-governmental
organizations and foreign law schools on international human rights
projects ranging from legal and policy analysis, fact-finding and
report writing, human rights training and capacity-building, and
public interest litigation. www.leitnercenter.org/programs/WLIHR/
SEARAC is a national organization that advances the interests of
Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans by empowering communities
through advocacy, leadership development and capacity building to
create a socially just and equitable society. www.searac.org
CONTACT:
Zaid Hydari
RemovingRefugees@gmail.com
212-636-6862
Pang Houa Moua
panghoua@searac.org
202-667-4690
Attachment:
http://www.vsubruins.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/062910-Release-of-Removing-Refugees-Report.pdf